F0684

G

Failure to Provide Ordered CPR, Diagnostic Follow-Up, Lab Response, and Wound Care

Huntington Beach, California Survey Completed on 02-05-2026

Penalty

Fine: $25,47013 days payment denial

Summary

The deficiency involves multiple failures to provide treatment and care according to physician orders, facility policies, and residents’ needs and conditions. For one resident with a documented full code status and POLST indicating CPR and full treatment, staff initiated CPR after the resident was found unresponsive, pulseless, and not breathing. Staff reported that after approximately 18–20 minutes of CPR, a carotid pulse was obtained, but the resident remained unconscious, barely breathing, and without a blood pressure reading. Despite this, staff stopped chest compressions and rescue breathing while waiting approximately 5–7 minutes for paramedics to arrive. When the fire department arrived, they found the resident pulseless, apneic, and without compressions being performed, and they restarted manual compressions and advanced resuscitation efforts. The facility’s DON stated the expectation was that licensed nurses continue CPR until the fire department arrives and takes over.

Another deficiency concerns a resident with severe cognitive impairment who experienced a fall and developed consistent right hip pain with a positive test noted by PT. The PT documented a recommendation for right hip/femur and knee x-rays, but the medical record did not show that nursing staff notified the physician of this recommendation at that time. A later physician order was written for bilateral hip/femur to knee x-rays, but the record only contained results for bilateral hip x-rays and no results for femur-to-knee imaging as ordered. The resident was later found at the hospital to have markedly displaced fractures of the distal femur requiring ORIF surgery. For the same resident, a STAT BMP, CBC, and magnesium were ordered, and lab results showed a hemoglobin of 6.3 g/dL, but the record did not show timely physician or family notification of this abnormal result. The resident was transferred to the ER later with low hemoglobin and received a blood transfusion. The resident’s family member reported not being notified of the low hemoglobin until the following day and that transfer to the hospital occurred two days after the low result.

Additional deficiencies for this resident involved failure to follow through on a physician recommendation to obtain a urine sample after a change in condition. The family reported lethargy and sediment in the urine, and the physician recommended collecting a urine sample, but the record contained no physician order, no lab requisition, and no urine test result. The resident, who had a suprapubic catheter and was care planned as at risk for catheter-related complications, was later transferred to the hospital and diagnosed with acute kidney injury and catheter-associated UTI. The family member stated the facility resisted transferring the resident to the hospital until the resident was eventually sent.

The facility also failed to provide ordered wound and skin treatments for several residents. For one resident with multiple treatment orders for bilateral upper and lower extremity discoloration, a left thumb lesion, MASD with excoriation to the buttocks, and suprapubic catheter site care and monitoring, the Treatment Administration Record and MAR for specific days lacked nurse initials, indicating treatments and monitoring were not completed. The resident’s family member reported the catheter was visibly cloudy and the split gauze dressing was filthy. For another resident with a gastrostomy tube, the TAR showed no nurse initials on a day when the daily order to cleanse the G-tube site and apply dressing should have been completed. For a third resident with mild cognitive impairment and multiple skin and wound treatment orders, including monitoring lower extremity discoloration, treating facial and shin scabs, managing MASD, and caring for surgical incisions and pressure injuries, the TAR lacked nurse initials for several ordered treatments on a specific day. Staffing assignment records showed that on some days there was no signed or assigned treatment nurse for certain stations, and LVN staff confirmed that missing initials indicated treatments were not completed.